Editorial
Javaid Rehman, Ayesha Shahid and Steve Foster
The editors are very pleased to present volume 4of the Asian Yearbook of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (AYBHRHL). Volume 1, 2 and 3 of AYBHRHL were published in October 2017, September 2018 and September 2019 respectively. As editors we are extremely pleased to note that all of the previous volumes of the Yearbook have been embraced enthusiastically and wholeheartedly by practitioners of human rights and humanitarian law as well as by academics working in this field.
Volume 1 conducted an original, incisive and highly insightful examination of the many complex issues generated by the problematic ‘Islamic State’, ISIS or ‘Da‘esh’.<sup>1</sup> A selection of papers presented at the first international conference of AYBHRHL held at Brunel University in September 2016 were published in Volume 1 of the Yearbook. The focused theme of volume 2 of AYBHRHL was ‘Islamic Law and its Implementation in Asia and the Middle East’. The focused theme represented articles, earlier versions of which were presented at the second annual conference for AYBHRHL.<sup>2</sup> This conference took place on 6 October 2017 at the British Institute of International and Comparative law, London (BIICL). We were extremely honoured to have the participation of leading scholars and jurists from across the globe in the 2017 conference and indeed in the publication of the volume 2.
The publication of volume 2 in September 2018 was followed by the highly anticipated third annual AYBHRHL conference held at BIICL on 26 October 2018. Coventry Law School, in collaboration with the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL), and Brunel Law School organised this third annual international conference entitled: ‘Law, Gender and Sexuality: Challenging Traditional Perspectives’.<sup>3</sup> This annual conference and volume 3 of the AYBHRHL was dedicated to the late Ms. Asma Jahangir, one of the leading human rights lawyers and advocates of her generation. During the conference tributes were paid to Asma Jahangir by a number of delegates. These included Professor Martin Scheinin, (the former UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism and former member of the UN Human Rights Committee) and Professor Shaheen Sardar Ali (former Vice Chair of the Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions and Professor of Law, School of Law University of Warwick). The conference proceedings were included in Volume 3 of the Yearbook, which was published in September 2019.
AYBHRHL Volume 4 (2020)
We are delighted at the publication of volume 4 of AYBHRHL, which takes place following the fourth annual international conference entitled: ‘Law, Culture and Human Rights in Asia and the Middle East’ which like the previous conference was also held at BIICL on 14 February, 2020. While this particular volume only contains a small selection of articles that were presented at the February 2020 conference, a further select group of papers shall be published in Volume 5 and 6 of the Yearbook. Volume 4 follows a similar pattern to the previous volumes, with the substantive structure of AYBHRHL consisting of 5 parts. The focused theme (consisting of four articles) presents a selection of articles concentrating on various aspects of the human rights situation in India. The focused theme includes articles from Professor Satvinder Juss, Dr. Tony Meacham, Dr. S. Pandiaraj and Adrija Ghosh. The General Articles section, representing Part 2 of the Yearbook, consist of seven articles covering a range of issues and a number of States. Recent Development section, representing Part 3 of the Yearbook, consists of five chapters, whereas Part 4 contains documents and Summaries of Proceedings of Human Rights Monitoring Bodies (Covering the Period August 2018 – September 2019) written by Denise Venturi and Silvia Venier. Part 5 of the Yearbook contains a brief section of reviews of books.
As always, we remain extremely grateful to Kristin Hausler (Dorset Senior Research Fellow in Public International Law, BIICL) for her generous support in the organisation of the fourth annual conference held on 14 February 2020 at BIICL.We are also enormously thankful to Brill-Nijhoff, publishers of the AYBHRHL. In particular, we owe a special debt of gratitude to our friend and publisher, Lindy Melman as she has supported the Yearbook from its inception and has been a consistent source of strength. She has enthusiastically participated in all of the Yearbook’s conferences and has always responded to all of the publisher’s enquiries and questions with care and great detail. We would also like to thank our sponsors for the fourth annual Conference. We are grateful to Professor Stephen Hardy, Head of Law School, Coventry University. Professor Hardy has been most generous in supporting AYBHRHL. Without the financial support from Coventry University it would have been impossible to organise this event. We are also grateful to a number of academic staff (Professor Nigel Berkeley, Professor Umut Turksen, Dr. Steve Foster, Dr. Ben Stanford) who have supported the Yearbook and the conferences.
Editorial News and Updates
In our capacity as editors we are most thankful to members of our editorial committee as well as to Editorial Board and to the International Advisory Board for their generous and consistent support in producing volume 4 of AYHRHL. We also remain thankful to our associated faculty who were instrumental in organisational aspects of the International Conference at BIICL and also provided valuable editorial assistance to various sections of the Yearbook.
Acknowledgement of Student Participation and Support
The editors would like to express their gratitude and thanks to a number of students at Brunel and Coventry University, in particular Muhammad Danyal Khan, Bushra Malik and Neelam Khan. Muhammad Danyal Khan, currently a doctoral researcher at Brunel University, Neelam Khan from Coventry University generously acted as part of the organising committee for the IV annual conference (14 February 2020) and Bushra Malik, a doctoral researcher at Brunel University, generously supported with the editorial work of volume 4 of the Yearbook.
Website for AYBHRHL
Further information on the AYBHRHL can be found at: <https://asianyearbookofhumanrights.com>.
Notes
1 Please see ‘Focused Theme: ISIS and the Implications for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law’ (2017) 1 AYBHRHL 3-136.
2 Please see ‘Focused Theme: Islamic Law and Its Implementation in Asia and the Middle East’ (2017) 2 AYBHRHL 3-173.
3 Please see ‘Focused Theme: Law, Gender and Sexuality’ (2018) 3 AYBHRHL 3-302.